The present invention relates to a system for controlling a fire pump, wherein a network is formed by both a fire pump body and a controller which is located away therefrom and can control the fire pump body by means of telecommunication.
Conventionally, there has been proposed a remote control system of a fire pump in a portable fire pump which can operate the fire pump even with a long distance interval as, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 5-137809. Such a remote control system has an advantage that a fireman can remote-control the fire pump even when the fireman stays away from the fire pump for fire fighting. Thus, even under the condition that the communication between the fireman and an operator of the fire pump is difficult to be maintained, a water discharging work can be carried out corresponding to the situation of the fire spot, so that an efficiency of fire fighting can be accomplished.
However, in such a remote control system, only one system can be mounted to one fire pump, or even if a plurality of systems can be mounted thereon, a wiring of data line for each remote control system must be installed so as to connect with the fire pump, respectively. As a result, there occurred a problem that the wiring becomes complicated.
Also, the conventional remote control system to be connected was under the relatively low level in which the on/off operation of the fire pump can be controlled. In the other words, it was impossible to conduct a complicate and fine control from the side of the remote control system. In addition, at the side of the remote control system, an operator can not know the present situation of the fire pump. For an adequate fire fighting, an improvement of these points have been expected.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system for remote-controlling a fire pump with a simple wiring construction, being capable of conducting various kinds of control and display.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a fire pump control system having an engine, a fire pump, and an internal control apparatus, comprising at least one external control apparatus located away from the fire pump including the internal control apparatus, and a twisted pair line for connecting the external control apparatus with the internal control apparatus, wherein the internal and external control apparatuses form a network through the twisted pair line so as to control the fire pump through telecommunications from the external control apparatus.
According to such a construction, the network is formed through a simple wiring which uses the twisted pair line. On the network, an operator can control the fire pump with communication from the external control apparatus. As a result, a high level of remote control to the fire pump through a plurality of controllers can be realized. Therefore, the operator can remote-control the fire pump from a remote place with monitoring an operation state thereof, so that more appropriate fire fighting can be expected.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the fire pump control system is characterized in that the internal control system at least has a control circuit comprising a motion control circuit for receiving information from various kinds of sensor mounted on the fire pump and transmitting control signals to an engine actuator, and a communication control circuit for communicating with the external control apparatus through the twisted pair line, and has an operation display section comprising an operation display panel and a throttle operation key.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, the fire pump control system is characterized in that the external control apparatus at least has an operation display portion comprising the operation display panel and the throttle operation key, and a control circuit including a communication control circuit for communicating with the internal control apparatus through the twisted pair line.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the fire pump control system is characterized in that the network uses a p-CSMA system for communicating data. Thereby, a collision rate of data on the network can be restrained lowly.